One of the Most Impressive Physical Productions I've Ever Seen

Rating: 9/10 (6 February 2017)

"The Longest Day" is a small miracle of a movie. Despite being directed by a handful of different men, it manages to be more coherent and more consistent in tone across its considerable running time than many films directed by a single person. This is not an episodic film in the sense that each director gets his own moment to shine before handing another section of the movie over to someone else; no, all of the variously directed segments are interwoven into a seamless narrative about the events leading up to and taking place on the day of the American invasion of Normandy during WWII.
Released in 1962 and produced by an artist of the old school, Darryl F. Zanuck, "The Longest Day" sits somewhere between the patriotic WWII films of the 1940s and 50s, to a greater or lesser degree all propaganda films, and those of the 1970s and 80s, which would downplay the heroism of war and instead focus on its barbarity and its toll, physical and mental, on those who fight them. This film leans much more toward the former, but it does dip its toes in the water of the latter by including a couple of moments that ask us to reflect on the sheer horror of what it must have been like to see combat during the World War. Of course, compared to a film like "Saving Private Ryan," its version of the Normandy beach landing looks quaint, but taken as a whole this film is better than Spielberg's, because it rejects the maudlin and sentimental story around which Spielberg anchored his film and replaces it with a much more objective, journalistic style. The film looks jaw-droppingly amazing, a marvel of sheer physical scale. If this were made today, CGI effects would do at least a half of what real actors and physical locations do in this film.
The film stars everybody and his mother. OK, so actually it doesn't feature anyone's mother, since only one role in the movie out of hundreds, that of a French resistance fighter, is played by a female. But it's a who's who of male talent, some of them -- John Wayne, Henry Fonda, Robert Ryan, Eddie Albert, Sal Mineo, Richard Burton -- already superstars when the film was released, and others -- Sean Connery, George Segal, Rod Steiger -- about to become so.
But the real star of "The Longest Day" is Samuel E. Beetley, the film's editor. This is a movie entirely made in the editing room, and it's one of the best examples of the art form ever committed to screen. Beetley was rightfully nominated for an Oscar nomination, but had the misfortune of seeing his work go up against that other little movie from 1962, "Lawrence of Arabia," which won just about every technical award it could. That would have been a tough choice, but I'm not so sure that, much as I love "Lawrence" and think it's overall by far the better film, I wouldn't have given Beetley his due.
The film did win Oscars for its black and white cinematography (thankfully "Lawrence" was in color) and its special effects. In addition to editing, it received nominations for Best Picture and Best Art Direction (B&W), which is also phenomenal.
Oscar trivia: "The Longest Day" was one of three films in 1962 (the other two being "The Music Man" and "Mutiny on the Bounty") that managed to be nominated for Best Picture without receiving nominations for directing, acting, or writing, the only time that's ever happened in a year with only five Best Picture nominees.
Grade: A